Public health orders around COVID-19 throw a wrench in the county’s 2020 Census strategy.

The decennial census is one of the largest bureaucratic undertakings the federal government does: counting every resident – regardless of citizenship or living conditions – to decide how to appropriately divide around $675 billion in funds and federal representation. The state lost an estimated $34 billion in federal funding.

The county wanted to increase the accuracy of the count this time around. They’ve been mobilizing nonprofits and community organizations leading up to the 2020 census, adopting a policy of “peer-to-peer” contact – or letting real non-administrator people explain the process to their own communities.

Beatriz Diaz is one such volunteer, and has been following that very prompt. Knocking on doors and informing her neighbors in Greenfield about the census. “My main concern is that the mailers say ‘to resident,’ so they’re all returned back to the postman,” she says. She often finds herself having to have face-to-face conversations with neighbors on common misconceptions.

But despite the outreach, the COVID-19 outbreak is changing everything. “I think the county has to play it by ear now,” Diaz says, unsure of how she will continue on-the-ground efforts with a shelter-in-place order in effect.

The county’s team is adapting and brainstorming. It helps that the census can be completed as a phone survey (available in 13 languages), as well online for the first time. Rosemary Soto, who leads the county’s census team, says the next steps will be to advocate that the federal government push back the deadline. Her team will ask the County Board of Supervisors on March 24 to formally send a letter to Congress with their request.

Amid the public health crisis, Soto says this is exactly why an accurate count is so important. “This is exactly why we need an accurate count,” she says. “This is the data that allows the federal government to see if their emergency response is adequate for certain areas.”